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Reading, Reviewing, and Revising

book reviews, christian fiction, Litfuse, suspense · August 11, 2012

The Stars Shine Bright – a Litfuse review

The Stars Shine Bright, the fifth novel in the Raleigh Harmon series, blew me away again! I’ve reviewed two of Sibella’s other novels in this series, and I love Raleigh Harmon. If you’re looking for a character with an engaging personality–spitfire, really!–this one is for you. The story is packed full of twists, turns, emotional elements, and an ending that will tug at your heartstrings.

This novel is a Christian suspense novel about an FBI agent named Raleigh Harmon. Hailing from Virginia, she’s been called to work in Washington State at a racetrack. Assigned to a lovely horse-owner named Eleanor, Raleigh’s task is to find out what is happening in the horse racing business. Horses get sick, die, are kidnapped, and it’s Raleigh’s job alone to remain undercover to solve the mystery.

But when her personal life gets in the way, it makes it hard for Raleigh to remain undercover. Concerned for her job, she tries hard to remain professional and keep her head on her shoulders. With her rich Virginian fiance visiting, she finds her task at keeping her job a secret is on the rocks.

More about the book:
After the FBI suspends her for bending its rules, Special Agent Raleigh Harmon is looking for a chance to redeem her career and re-start her life.
Sent undercover to a thoroughbred horse track, Raleigh takes on a double life to find out who’s fixing the races. But when horses start dying and then her own life is threatened, Raleigh realizes something bigger—and more sinister—is ruining Emerald Meadows.
She’s never felt more alone.
Her one contact with the FBI is Special Agent Jack Stephanson, a guy who seems to jump from antagonistic to genuine friend depending on the time of day. And she can’t turn to her family for support. They’re off-limits while she’s undercover, and her mother isn’t speaking to her anyway, having been confined to a mental hospital following a psychotic breakdown. Adding insult to her isolation, Raleigh’s fiancé wants them to begin their life together—now—precisely when she’s been ordered not to be herself.
With just days left before the season ends, Raleigh races to stop the killing and find out who’s behind the track’s trouble, all the while trying to determine if Jack is friend or foe, and whether marrying her fiancé will make things better—or worse.
Raleigh is walking through the darkest night she’s faced, searching for a place where the stars shine bright.
Meet Sibella Giorello:
Sibella Giorello grew up in the mountains of Alaska admiring the beauty and nature that surrounded her. She majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts hoping to learn more about the landscape she loved back home. From there Sibella followed a winding path, much like the motorcycle ride she took across the country, which led to her true love, journalism.
She found herself in Seattle writing for rock-n-roll magazine and earned a journalism degree from the University of Washington before heading south to the land of great stories.
In Virginia, Sibella became a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was there she also met her husband and would hear Jesus whispering her name at a tent revival.
Sibella started writing about Raleigh Harmon as a way to keep her love of story-telling alive while staying at home with her young sons. As a journalist and author, her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. The Stones Cry Out, the first Raleigh Harmon novel, won a Christy award for debut novel in 2008. Sibella now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons.
Visit Sibella Giorello online at www.sibellagiorello.com, Facebook or Twitter.

Win a Kindle Fire from SibellaGiorello in “The Stars Shine Bright” Giveaway! Novelist Sibella Giorello is celebrating the release of the latest book in her praiseworthy Raleigh Harmon series by giving away a Kindle Fire! 

One grand prize winner will receive:

  • A brand new Kindle Fire
  • The entire 5-book Raleigh Harmon series.

Hurry, the giveaway ends on 8/25/12. The winner will be announced on 8/27/12 on Sibella’s blog!

Just click one of the icons below to enter.

Enter via E-mail Enter via FacebookEnter via Twitter

I received The Stars Shine Bright as a complimentary gift in exchange for review from Litfuse Publicity Group. I was not required to give a favorable review; my opinions are my own.

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Posted In: book reviews, christian fiction, Litfuse, suspense

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